


Dark

by pureO



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-04 23:36:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17313950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pureO/pseuds/pureO
Summary: Bucky and reader are hydra prisoners, but maybe they’ll find a way out





	Dark

The yellow lights and the whirring noises of the machinery in the room were overwhelming.

You could barely focus your sight, which was adjusting glacially slow to the bright lights after months in the dark.

You wanted to collapse, vomit or maybe just die right there. You knew it was a matter of time before your legs gave way to the heaviness you felt.

If it weren’t for the arm of a man in a lab coat that held you steady, you’d had fallen already.

“Do it,” The man screamed, forcefully pushing you to stand near a chair where someone sat, bound and gagged.

Your brain was sluggish, and you opened and closed your eyes a few times trying to focus your eyes on the person on the chair, still not fully comprehending the situation.

“No,” You managed in a croaky voice

Another shove sent you tumbling and you grabbed on to the chair in order not to fall face first on the cold white floor.

You were inches from him, and now you could see clear enough.

“Bucky,” You mumbled, struggling to contain the nausea. You hadn’t seen him in years, not since the time they made you put the words in his head. His blue eyes beamed in recognition for the smallest of seconds, and you felt his hand seize yours with a steely grip. He didn’t answer but you felt how he slipped something into your hand. He stared at you, an anguish ridden glance, and you know what it meant.

Next thing you felt was a heavy blow to the head, and then it all went black.

The dripping sound of a leaking faucet wakes you, and this time the room is dark. You’re thankful for that. Your brain feels like it’s been through a blender.

You lift yourself from the ground and struggle to sit against the cold damp wall of the cell. Your wrist is bruised by the single handcuff they use to contain your powers. Dim light filters through the barred window in the door, and some muffled voices reach your ears.

“She’s not strong enough. You saw what happened this morning”

“Then wipe her. Let’s start clean. Wipe him too, while you’re at it. They’re recognizing each other again”

“Every time we do it, it takes her longer to learn to contain her power. I lost two people last time”

“Doesn’t matter. We have the machine now, thanks to her. And she’s becoming harder to manage. I’ve got half a mind to just … terminate her. If only we didn’t need her…”

“Please, don’t do that. She’s fascinating, scientifically… The first human being able to manipulate minds… Imagine if we could replicate it in other humans…”

“Yeah, yeah, I don’t care. Just deal with it.”

The words echoed in your brain like fireworks and your memory started to function again.

This morning

Your mind runs a play by play of the scene and it dawns on you suddenly.

You look at your closed fist, and when you open it you find a shard of metal, sharp and cold.

Bucky.

You trail off, remembering when you met him, so many years ago.

This talent of yours, it came at a price. They lure you under the pretense of science and research, and a hefty chunk of money, which sounds amazing for a broke college student. If only you had known… It was all very civilized, until he came along. Until the tests weren’t on you, but on him and others, and you stop cooperating.

Then they throw you in a cell. Cold and damp all the time, but at least you’re not alone. Or so you thought, but it would probably had been the same. He never talks, never moves, never does anything. Just sits there until they take him away for awhile and eventually throw him back in.

It’s strange at first but then you stop caring if he hears you or not, because the silence is deafening and you have to say something, even if to remember that you actually exist. So you talk, and talk and talk. You tell him the unprompted story of your miserable life, and how you came to be property of hydra.

Sometimes you just mumble nonsense, until your voice is hoarse.

Sometimes you sing whatever tune you remember from better days. Anything to drown the silence.

“How long have you been here?” You ask him once. Time moves different in the darkness, and you have already lost count of your own time there. Probably months.

His head hangs low, as always, but you’re not really expecting an answer, because he hasn’t uttered a word in all the time you’ve been locked together.

“What year is it?” He whispers

It surprises you, but you search your brain for the answer.

“1991. At least that’s what I remember”

He says nothing for a while, just grabs his head between his hands, trying to remember something.

“Four…almost five…”

Your eyes grow wide “five years?” You ask, astonished.

“Decades. Four, almost five decades”

Your mouth flies open in disbelief. You can’t fathom 5 years in this hell hole. But 5 decades…

You’re not sure why but you feel the unstoppable need to hug him, so you do. He jerks a little at the contact at first, but then he melts into it.

Then you cry, for him and for you and because you haven’t cried in so long that the first tear releases a flood. He cries with you, until you’re both out of tears, and he’s not the first to let go.

It all changes after that day.

He tells you the story of how he lost his arm, how hydra captured him. His name is Bucky. He had a friend named Steve. He was in WWII. However little he remembers from his past, he tells you.

Some nights you sleep next to each other, when the cold gets to be too much, and you wake up with his flesh arm around you. It feels nice, like a ray of sunlight in the darkness, and you never want to let go.

It’s never more, never less. Friendship seems a strange word for what you are. But it’s the closest.

Sometimes he asks you to sing for him, all the silly tunes you sang on those first weeks, and you comply. Misery seems more bearable when it’s shared.

Occasionally, when the nights are darkest, he’ll whisper in your ear “If we make it out of here, will you help me forget?”

Your heart shrinks at his words because you know what they mean, but your answer is always the same “I’ll do it for you. I’ll do anything for you”

Then he holds you tighter and you hope he never lets go.

Until one day they take him, and he doesn’t comeback. And then shortly after, they come for you.

Your next meeting is less than pleasant.

——–

You hear footsteps approaching and they rip you from your memories. Then the latch on the door whirs as it unlocks. A tall man enters the room, the same guy from this morning, dressed in black pants and a pristine white coat.

“Feeling better?” He asks with a mocking grin as he kneels in front of you until you’re to eye level.

“Fuck you,” You spit in his face, and he’s less than pleased, but otherwise non-reactive. He moves to produce a paper tissue from his pocket and you know it’s now or never.

Your hand flies in front of his face, and before he can even process what’s happening, the shard of metal is sinking into the thin skin of his neck. His eyes widen in confusion, and his blood spatters across your face, and his next words drown in his throat with his dying breath.

Adrenaline kicks in and you pry the key of the cells from the dead guy’s hand. In a matter of seconds you’re out of the cell and running the halls like a mad person. You count the cells until you get to his.

He sits on the same chair, and someone it’s next to him but they have their back to the door.

An alarm starts blaring the second his eyes meet yours, but he wastes no time. The restraints around his arms are no match for his super soldier strength and his metallic arm.

You’re in a frenzy trying to kick open the locked door, and you hear rushed footsteps coming your way. You have seconds, and the adrenaline kicks again.

Inside the room Bucky’s fighting someone but the fight doesn’t last long and finally he’s there, one locked door away from you.

Then you remember: You have the keys.

You fumble with them and try a couple of them until the right one opens the door.

You can already see the armed guards coming your way from one end of the hallway, and it’s like you’re glued to the floor, panic setting in your confused eyes.

The super soldier grabs your hand and pulls you out of the stupor. You run with him through the maze of hallways that is the Hydra base.

He stops for a second forcing you to stop with him. He looks at you, like he’s trying to figure something out but can’t. Whatever is going through his mind remains a mystery and then with a flick of his metal hand he releases your wrist from the handcuff designed to contain you.

He grabs your arm again, softly this time and guides you. You hope to god that he knows the way out of this place.

As soon as you turn the next hallway there’s already armed guards waiting for you and you stop dead on your tracks. The soldier tries pulling you but you’re frozen again in fear. This is the closest you’ve ever gotten to escaping. And now it’s over.

However, he’s not willing to go down without fighting and he takes on the 4 guys that are coming at you. You’ve seen him in action before but this is surreal. There are limbs flying about, and it’s a miracle how in a couple of seconds he already has 2 of the guards down on the floor.

You watch him, eyes wide in awe. But finally a bullet catches his shoulder and it’s like a bucket of cold water just fell on top of you.

And you remember. You can help him.

You close your eyes, and concentrate, and it hurts, it’s horrible, but it works.

“STOP!”

Your scream is loud and firm and the second you utter it, the remaining two guards stop, vacant eyes and drooling faces.

You both stare at each other for a moment, and then you run to catch up to him. You encounter a couple more guards on your way out but they’re no match to you and the soldier. The sound of the alarms is deafening to the point where you can barely hear your own thoughts, but it doesn’t matter because you can see the exit.

He reaches the door first and the night air hits you in the face as he opens the heavy door to a patch of woods. But you don’t have time to stop since now you have the whole of hydra breathing down your neck. You hear gunshots and in a trembling second you take his hand and run, run, run into the woods.

He manages much better in the terrain, and you haven’t even seen the outside in years, but somehow manage to keep up with him by will alone.

Neither of you stop even for a breath for a long time. Fortunately, everytime you dare to look back, the flashlights of the people looking for you seem farther and farther.

Then it dies down, the adrenaline rush is over and your body is screaming for a break.

“Bucky,” you say in between shortened breaths, leaning your arm on a tree for support.

He stops and looks at you, not even a drop of sweat on him.

“You keep calling me that. And so did the man on the bridge,” He trails off and his eyes get lost in the void of night.

“What?” you squint at him

“Who the hell is Bucky?” He asks

“You don’t remember,” You sigh, biting your lip, “Wait… If you don’t remember…Why did you help me? You could have made a run for it without me”

“I don’t know. I just felt like I should. Like I knew you”

He looks at you as if you hold all the answers. You take a cautious step towards him, and you go to touch his cheek, but he takes a step back.

“I don’t want to hurt you… I can help you remember,” You say, and your lips curl in a small smile, more sad than anything.

He doesn’t move and you take it as an ok to get closer. Maybe the face was too intimate, so instead you take his hand on yours, and he flinches a bit but he doesn’t step away this time.

You take a deep breath and close your eyes. You can feel something leaving you and going through him.

He feels it too, warm and soft, washing over him and making him somewhat whole again, slowly filling the empty spaces inside his brain, layers upon layers of memories, good and bad.

The cold reaches your bones for the first time that night and you know it’s done, so you let go of him.

“That’s all I have. I can only give you back what they made me take. But I’m sure there’s more,”

The change inside of him is evident, and his steel blue eyes no longer look lost, but crystalline and bright.

This time he’s the one closing the distance between the two of you. How could he forget you? And yet, he knows you’re the one to blame. But he also knows it’s not your fault, because he has done awful things too, none of them willing.

You’re not sure if he’s going to attack you or not, but he’s near and you want to be near again so you don’t move, and suddenly he’s enveloping you in his strong arms, hugging you so tight that you can feel your own heartbeat pouncing on his shirt. You hug him back and it’s everything you remember, wholehearted and pleasant like a blanket on a rainy day.

You cry and laugh and so does he, grabbing your face in his hands and looking at you as if it were the first time. He looks tired and sad and incredibly handsome under the pale moonlight, so your brain chooses to disregard the precarious nature of your current situation, and before you know it, you’re crashing your lips on his.

His eyes widen in surprise for a moment but almost instantaneously he’s kissing you back. He tastes sweet and salty, and the kiss is full, intense like a storm and almost as violent.

Then it all comes crashing down. There’s gunshots coming from every other direction, and one buries in your in leg. Rushed footsteps sound between the trees, and you know they’re close.

There’s no pain, only a burning feeling in your leg, and the familiar sensation of blood running down your thigh.

He looks at you in confusion and he understands in a second. He grabs you by the arm again, and you move to start running beside him but the second your leg takes a step, it crumbles in itself, and you fall to the leaf covered ground. You’re not gonna make it, but he might, if he runs

“RUN!” You scream at him

“No. I won’t without you,” He found you again. He’s determined not to lose you. So he kneels beside you and tries to lift you but you can’t stand. The initial shock is wearing off and it’s rising into mind shattering pain.

“You have to,” You mumble, and you know what has to happen next, “Come back for me. If you can,”

“No. Don’t! You can’t do this to me!” He screams in despair but there’s no other way

“I am so sorry,” you say as a single tear escapes your struggling eyes

“Don’t d-”

But he never finishes his sentence, because your hand is already in his shoulder, and you don’t even need words anymore. You can feel his memory dissolving between your fingers, like butter. It won’t last long, just a few hours. Just until you can lead them away from him, and he’s far away from this place.

“Run,” You whisper in his ear, “Find the man on the bridge”

You see his eyes go blank and you hate yourself for what you did. But there was no other way. And your heart it’s breaking into a million pieces,

You struggle but find footing and you limp as far away from him as you can, purposefully making noise that will alert hydra of your position. It’s you who they want after all. They have more winter soldiers. But only one of you.

You look back and you can see the reflection of a metal arm running in the distance, until he’s out of sight, and you know it’s time.

“I’m here assholes,” You whimper.

With a heavy thud you let yourself fall to the ground again. They’re looming over you, and soon enough you’ll be a prisoner again. But at least he’s safe now.


End file.
